


Malfunction

by Chimera Manticore (chimeral_colors)



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: theres no actual explanation for this i just like killing my favorite characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-20 23:44:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6030228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chimeral_colors/pseuds/Chimera%20Manticore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is an oldish fic from when Redcore Rabbit first debuted. I always wondered why Rabbit changed her core, or what would happen if that ended up being worse than the original blue core. What if it just.. ate her up inside? Oh the possiblilites-!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Malfunction

**Author's Note:**

> forgive the shitty buildup (aka most of the fic) I mainly wrote this for the death scene lol

It was only a few months ago when Rabbit's core started to malfunction. She would glitch and stutter a lot more than usual, and broke down almost weekly. The Walter Workers didn't know much of what they could do for her. The only option seemed to be a core transplant. I remember thinking it wasn't a good idea, and swallowing my fear. I never did bring it up to anyone. Why didn't I bring it up to anyone?

The transplant went smoothly, to say it plainly. Rabbit began to run much better afterwards. She was no longer spastic, but instead cool and collected. Of course, that just made a the fans love her more. But I didn't mind. It was a big change for her, and I wanted to let her have the spotlight for a while. This new Redcore Rabbit was almost better than the original.

That is, until things started to go downhill again.

"What's wrong with her?" I had asked the Walter Techs.

"The red matter _is_ highly experimental," one of them explained. "Unstable matter in an unstable robot should cancel out."

"Either that or destroy her completely," I snapped at them. Then I had stormed out of the room. There was no more conversation to be had. Now I had to be the one to break it to her.

I don’t remember exactly what I had told her, but I do remember she started crying afterwards. I had to comfort her until she finished. When she was finally done and looked up, I saw new dark oil streaks for her to add to the collection she already had.

As time went on, Rabbit began to break down again. The Walter Techs seemed to be caring less and less about fixing her. I remember asking her the day before one of our shows if she would be able to stay working the whole time. I mean, a few minor malfunctions was one thing. She’s Rabbit, what would you expect? But breaking down completely, especially after it would normally take up to fifteen minutes to fix her, was a whole other thing.

“I’ll b-be fine, The Spine!” she said cheerily. “Promise!” I had no choice but to smile. She was happy, and so was I.

The next evening, though, she broke her own promise. Halfway through the show, she froze in the middle of the song. Hatchworth and I stopped playing once we realized our vocalist had stopped. I looked over at her, and saw that this malfunction wasn’t anything like the other ones. Normally, she would just power off. But this time, she was frozen in her spot, eyes wide, face contorted into a look of mild… pain? The Walter Techs reluctantly came out on stage to fix her, which of course took longer than just a few seconds. Even they couldn’t seem to find what was wrong with her. After about a minute or two, they decided the only thing they could do was take her off the stage until they could figure out what to do with her. I gave Hatchworth an uneasy glance, and we finished the song awkwardly on our own. The show didn’t last much longer that night.

“Hey, what happened earlier?” I asked her a few hours later, once the show had ended and the Walters told me it was okay to talk to her.

“I-I-I don’t know,” she told me. “One moment, I’m s-singing, and then I felt my c-core hurting, and then ev-everything j-ju-just went black.”

“I’m starting to think I should’ve mentioned something earlier,” I said.

“What do you me-mean?”

“I had a bad feeling about this whole thing,” I explained. “But I thought it would help you. You were in such a bad state, I wanted everything to be fixed. And it was, just not for long.”

“Well, it’s no-not like you could’ve known,” she said, trying to reassure me.

“I know,” I replied, a sad tone in my voice. “I just want you to be fixed.”

“And I’m sure the W-Walters’ll figure somethin’ out soon.” I smiled a little.

“Yeah,” I said. “Hopefully they will.”

The next day, I heard Rabbit yell my name from her room upstairs. Why doesn’t she just use the wi-fi? I thought. It’s so much easier. But I got to her room and realized why she couldn’t have called me that way. I found her on the floor, limbs tangled everywhere. I realized she must have fallen off her bed and her connection must have broken off. _I told the Walters not to get loft beds,_ I grumbled. _These things happen when you get loft beds._

“Rabbit, are you okay?” I asked, going to help her up. She stood shakily and sat down in a chair.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “My legs gave out while I was tr-tryin’ to get onto the bed, and I f-f-fell.”

“Do you want me to get the Walter Workers?”

“No. I-I’m fine. Just… just gimme a bit.” She sighed. “I’m st-startin’ to think this whole red m-matter thing wasn’t such a good idead ‘ta be-begin with. L-l-like, what if next time this thing happens, I’m at the top of the st-st-stairs or something? It’s honestly startin’ t-ta scare me.” I lowered my gaze.

“Me too,” I said. I sat down on the floor beside her and we talked for a while, until the Walters came in and told us it was time to power off for the day. Things weren’t too bad with Rabbit’s condition after that. She almost seemed to be getting better. That is, until what happened last week.

I was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper when my thoughts were cut off by a garbled message over the wi-fi. I cringed, why was it so loud? I checked the source- it was coming from Rabbit. I feared the worst and ran up to her room.

“Rabbit?” I called when I was outside her door. I only heard a muffled moan coming from inside. I reached out a shaky hand and opened the door to find her writhing in pain on the floor next to her bed. I rushed over and helped her sit up, having her lean against me. She had been crying from the pain, and her core was a lot dimmer than it should have been.

"Oh my god, Rabbit," I said, struggling to get my words out, "I'm gonna call the Walter Workers, okay?" She nodded, but didn't say anything. I sent a message to them through the wi-fi, but there was no response. I sent another one, still nothing.

"Th-they're coming," I told her. "Don't worry."

"Sp-Sp-Spine." I looked back down at her. "They-they're n-no-not c-coming, are th-they?" The stutter in her voice was worse than ever before.

"How did you-"

"I've be-been around f-f-for a while," she said. "I th-th-think I can r-read pe-people p-p-pretty well b-by now. I'm a nuisance t-to them by no-now. Th-they probably a-already have a r-re-replacement l-lined up f-for me. They'll p-probably bring ba-ba-back Jon or Upgrade if they have to." She smiled sadly. "It-it's not n-nice, but it's most likely t-true."

"Don't say things like that," I said, doing my best not to start crying. She sighed.

"Th-th-this is why I d-didn't want you se-seeing me l-li-like this," she replied. "You're the p-protective one of us all, a-and I knew if y-y-you saw something ba-bad happen t-to me, you would b-blame yourself f-for it." I looked down shamefully, knowing she was right. We sat in silence- excepting random hisses of steam coming from Rabbit from time to time- for a while before she spoke again.

"H-hey Spine?" She said.

"Yeah?"

"T-t-tell me a story."

"About what?"

"S-something I've for-forgotten," she told me. It occurred to me that she had been losing her memory as well lately. She had forgotten rehearsals and important meetings, as well as special dates. The other day, she had asked me about fifty times when Carissa's birthday was.

"Te-tell me something about Pappy," she said, getting an idea on her own. Her voice was beginning to fade, and so was the light from her core. I forced myself to look away and think of something to tell her.

"Well," I started, "I know he built you first. And then I got to meet you for the first time, and I thought how lucky I was to have a sibling. And I remember how you only knew how to say 'rabbit' back then, and that was how you got your name. Jon and I didn't really have actual names then either. I was Number One, and he was Number Three. I remember how they wanted to name you Number Two at first, but I'm kinda glad they kept Rabbit." I heard her laugh weakly, snapping me back to reality. I looked back at her, and she looked so much more peaceful now. Almost like she wasn't in pain anymore. Maybe she wasn't. I guess I'll never know.

"D-do you miss him?" She asked.

"Yeah," I said, sighing. "Some times more than others." Then silence again.

"Hey Th' Spine?"

"Yeah, Rabbit?"

"Do you think... you think I'll see him again? When I go?" Her voice was even softer now, and I knew I didn't have much more time with her. I could barely see the light coming from her core now, if there even was any at this point.

"Yeah," I told her. "Yeah, you'll see him, and all the other Walters, and Jenny, and Honeybee, and Julia... you'll get to see all of them again."

"Huh," she said. I looked down at her one more time. The light was fading from her eyes, and I could hear her gears beginning to slow. "I guess that doesn't make dying as... as bad as it seems... right...?"

"I guess not," I replied, not really knowing how to respond to something like that.

When I looked back down at her, her eyes had shut and all the light had gone from her core. It almost looked like she could have been sleeping. She looked so calm and relaxed, even younger if that was possible. I sighed, forced a pained smile, and held her close to me. I let the first sob rack against my chest, a sudden release of internal pain I never knew was there until it had gone.

"Yeah, I guess not."


End file.
